08/09/2021
Ruth Jones McNeill, 72, died on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2021, in Corvallis, Oregon.
Ruth was born in Chicago on March 13, 1949, to William Hardy McNeill and Elizabeth Darbishire McNeill. She was born into an academic family and excelled in school. She attended Swarthmore College, 1966-70, majoring in anthropology. Her father wanted her to pursue a Ph.D; she wanted to enter the world of theater. Instead, she became a primary school teacher, first in West Hartford and then Boston. She was a very dedicated teacher and had a strong empathy for her pupils.
She married Bart Jones in 1992, becoming officially Ruth Jones McNeill. They moved to Oregon in 2004, where she taught preschool at Good Shepherd Lutheran Preschool in Albany before retiring.
Woofie, as her family and friends called her, had a gift for friendship. She remained devoted all her life to the friends she made in college and in her first years as a teacher. Long after she had moved to Oregon she made twice-annual pilgrimages to New England to see her dearest friends.
She was equally devoted to her family and her many nieces and nephews. She wove baby blankets, found them the perfect Christmas presents, and at summer gatherings in Colebrook often came equipped with an age-appropriate project to delight the young. Until her final year she kept up avidly with their progress in life.
She became a Friend, joining Corvallis Friends Meeting in March, 2014. Her involvement in the meeting included serving on several committees, including Ministry and Oversight Committee, where her leadership role included writing a pamphlet on introductory Quakerism intended for visitors to the Meeting and new members. Additionally, she helped to write the “History of Corvallis Monthly Meeting” that is found in the Meeting’s User’s Manual.
She also served for many years on Library Committee, and it was in that role that Ruth showed her gifts of organization and scholarship, spearheading a revamping of the committee and major transformation of the library itself. Friends serving with her on the committee found her inspirational, diplomatic, and resourceful in dealing with this monumental task. She wrote an article about this experience, which was published in the November 2017 Friends Journal. Ruth’s love of learning naturally extended itself into exploring the lives of Quakers, and eventually into her invention of a card game, Famous Quakers Memory Game, which she collaborated with another member of the Friends meeting to publish and sell.
Other activities taking important roles in her life in Corvallis were Reevaluation Co-counselling, where she is remembered as a caring, capable, and dedicated teacher and co-counselor; involvement in Mid-Valley Hearing Loss Association as her own hearing deteriorated; volunteering at Room at the Inn, the local overnight shelter for homeless women; and promoting universal health care in her work with Health Care For All Oregon.
Among the things she enjoyed were basketry; textiles—which she both admired and wove; words, which she read in abundance and spoke and wrote with precision; and museums and archeological sites, at both of which she demonstrated considerable stamina.
She battled cancer off and on beginning in 1989, showing a dogged determination not to allow it to define her existence. At one point she was informed that people with her diagnosis had a life expectancy of two to three years. Her response included a trip to Peru— with its wonderful textiles, archeological sites, and museums—and outliving that grim forecast by 20 years.
Ruth is survived by her husband, Bart Jones; two brothers, John Robert McNeill and Andrew Duncan McNeill; a sister, Deborah Joan McNeill; and eleven nieces and nephews.
A memorial service, in the manner of Friends, will be held for Ruth on Sunday afternoon, August 29, 2021, at 3:30 p.m. at the Peffer Pavilion, Starker Arts Park, in Corvallis. Refreshments will be served at 4:30 p.m. Guests are asked to bring lawn chairs.
